


The Quiet Ones

by DropsOfAutumn



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Boys In Love, But Shiro is definitely not less subtle, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, Keith & Romelle Friendship, Keith & all the other Paladins Friendship, Keith pining so hard everyone notices it, M/M, Mutual Pining, POV Outsider, idiots to lovers, soft, squint and you miss Allurance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2019-12-13
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:53:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21783238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DropsOfAutumn/pseuds/DropsOfAutumn
Summary: Pidge knew, the second she saw Keith in the doorway, making the biggest heart eyes at Shiro,  his eyes blown wide at the sight in front of him, a lovely tint of red on his cheeks.And she liked it.Damn, this is like one of those cheesy teen movies, only way better because both of them were such puppies,she caught herself thinking, and the fact she actually started to giggle made her want to wretch.--Or: the one in which nobody is surprised at all
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Comments: 34
Kudos: 172
Collections: Ace Pilot Exchange 2019





	The Quiet Ones

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hymnaria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hymnaria/gifts).



> Dear [Hymnaria](https://twitter.com/hymnaria), this is your gift for the Ace Pilot Server exchange and I really hope you like it <3  
> I loved all your prompts and had a hard time deciding, so I tried to combine a few.  
> I've always wanted to write an introspective outsider's pov fic like this one and your prompts simply screamed at me do finally act on this dream.  
> I had so much fun writing all the Paladin's povs and I have to admit I cried a bit writing Romelle's part. 
> 
> Please let me know who's part was your favourite <3
> 
> ***  
> Thanks to amazingest [Christie](https://twitter.com/appetixing) for reading over <3

Pidge knew the second she saw Keith standing in the doorway to her dorm, his eyes blown wide at the sight in front of him, a lovely tint of red on his cheeks.

Well, having Keith in her doorway was nothing unusual per se. It was their shared doorway anyway and they had this silent agreement where they could bother each other whenever their doors weren’t closed.

When she had first moved into the dorm, the idea of sharing rooms with a stranger had left her with a knot in her stomach. She had sent prayers to the god of science to give her someone that would not be weirded out by her all-nighters and her weird eating habits and the fact that she could not do the laundry if her life depended on it.  
  
The god of science gave her Keith instead.

And after the first days of awkward skirting around each other, retreating to the dark of their rooms, Pidge had come home to find a sleepy Keith on the table of their kitchenette, the rumbling of his stomach so loud it was easy to mistake it for an angry kitten. She had to laugh – the image of a feral kitten fit so well with Keith's defensive and gruff manner.

“Hey Tiger, time to wake up.” It was with a not-so-elegant nudge against the chest that she tried to wake her newly acquired roommate.  
  
“Katie?” The way Keith sleep-drunkenly mumbled her name, peeking up to her through an unruly mess of black hair might have been endearing – if it wasn’t for the dark circles under Keith’s eyes. Oh boy, did this guy even _try_ to sleep?  
  
“Told you to call me Pidge,” she explained, though her voice got lost in the loud rumble of Keith’s stomach.  
  
“Are you hungry? You should grab lunch, man.”  
  
“I… have no idea where the cafeteria is,” came the mumbled response. Pidge didn't know it was possible to roll her eyes as hard as she did at his words. And she was raised with one Matthew Holt, her standards were pretty low.  
  
“Seriously? Have you eaten at all? It’s been three days already!” The only response she got was a mumbled curse. Keith had let his head sink back into his arms.   
  
“Good god, you’re even weirder than I am. I’m gonna keep you.” At least her roommate seemed to be a quiet one. And an outsider. It had potential. 

  
“But...” There was no way she would give Keith any chance to make excuses. She knew exactly who to ask.

“No buts. We have to get you something to eat first.” 

Good thing this kid was light as a feather, otherwise dragging Keith to Hunk’s never-ending supply of freshly made cupcakes would have been more difficult.  
  
And what had been started as some kind of ‘social experiment’, as Hunk liked to joke to her, would become a blossoming friendship between two roommates. 

Keith would do their laundry while Pidge provided them with a sufficient amount of energy drinks, beer and snacks, which would be consumed during their weekly gaming evenings. Keith would listen to her ramblings, would let her go on for hours about string theory and laws of physics, letting an 'uh huh' or a 'yeah' drop here and there before admitting he had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. 

Still, thinking her ideas out loud had always helped her, as well as the fact that Keith did not mind her using half the pinboard in their dorm for the wildest equations. 

“As long as I can still read our grocery list,” was all Keith would say, shrugging while picking up another sock that had magically found its way to the tap. 

Yeah, rooming with Keith was definitely amazing.  
  
  
So when Shiro entered the picture, turning loner Keith into a blushing teenager again, Pidge could not help but grin. 

It was not unusual for her brother to visit her in her dorm and it was pretty common for him to be accompanied by his puppy of a friend from astronomy class.

Matt had always been the more communicative one of them. Pidge could clearly remember her dad making a rude comment of Matt being the “social” one – a comment that would still haunt Pidge’s dreams every time she was thrown into a new social situation. And still, Matt’s taste in friends never failed to amuse her.

Years and years of sharing a room with Matthew Holt had introduced her to the most amazing set of people. Pidge had seen very shy introverts, sociopaths and bro-dudes come and go. And she could still vividly remember the one girl that used to talk like a computer-generated persona. Pidge could also vividly remember the look on Matt’s face the first time the nickname ‘Alexa’ slipped from her lips and how Matt’s revenge came in the form of changing his Netflix password. 

Good thing Matt always tended to underestimate the power of Pidge’s password encoding skills. 

So when Matt stomped into her room one day, dragging Shiro behind him, Pidge was by no means surprised about this unique addition to Matt’s List of Weird Friends.

While Matt was all long legs and scrawny build, Shiro was tall and buff, his frame clearly telling about all those hours in the gym and his position as leader of the football team. Pidge was sure his enormous thighs could actually serve as nutcrackers and she was eager to test her hypothesis one day. Preferably once Shiro was so drunk he wouldn't remember the next day. 

From all the friends Matt had dragged to her doorstep, always with the same big eyes, his face screaming ‘Can I keep them?’, Shiro was by far the one friend she really wanted to stick. 

Because Shiro was awesome. 

He knew the worst dad jokes, he couldn’t cook for his life, and he was a teacher’s pet, always offering a shoulder to cry on and never shying away from the possibility to drop some weird astronomy fact.  
  
Shiro was what Pidge lovingly would describe as a dog. A tall, buff, loyal dog, with the biggest puppy eyes when mac and cheese were involved, and the most loyal companion when his friends were in need. (She would forever be grateful for him dragging an utterly drunk Matt to his room after a particularly wild frat party).  
  
The only thing Shiro was missing was a love life. And so the second she saw Keith in the doorway, making the biggest heart eyes at Shiro, she knew what was up. 

And she liked it. 

_Damn, this is like one of those cheesy teen movies, only way better because both of them were such puppies_ , she caught herself thinking, and the fact she actually started to giggle made her want to wretch.  
  


*

Romelle watched the way Keith’s gaze lingered a bit too soft on Shiro’s features, and the way his hand remained a little too long on the small of his back, and took a (correctly) educated guess of the situation.  
  
Kids in middle school had been nasty. They hadn't liked her hair, nor her snooping around, and they hadn't liked her telling their teachers about the time they kicked a dog. She should have known they would find her and corner her once the teachers didn’t look, that they would try kicking her the same way they did with that puppy.

Romelle could still remember Keith’s voice in all the noise, yelling, “Hey, losers, get lost!”

She would still remember the screams of the other boys raising their sticks. The scar on Keith’s face would always remind her of his bravery, of little Keith fighting off five boys with five sticks for a girl he didn't even know.  
  
She would still remember the way a beaten and bruised Keith offered her a hand as soon as all the boys had run off. “Hey, are you okay?”

Over the following years, there were a couple of times when Romelle would see the scar and start crying in the middle of whatever she was doing, telling Keith how sorry she was, it had all been her fault. But nothing beat the way Keith would bump their shoulders together or pull her into a hug and tell her: “Hey, don’t worry. The scar is worth getting you as a sister.”   
  
They were close growing up, and so losing her brother to college was sad, heartbreaking even. 

But Romelle did her best, only cried twice as she pulled Keith into a hug and made him promise to call at least once a week and tell her about _everything_ . And not to get into trouble, because otherwise, she would board the next plane to fight someone.  
  
Keith had only laughed and swiped her tears away, telling her, “I’ll miss you, 'Melle.”  
  
Of course, Romelle was worried about Keith not finding any friends at college. But when Keith’s number showed up on her phone two weeks into the semester and Keith was beaming as he told stories about his roommate and her awkward brother, she knew Keith would be okay. 

The calls were few, because college seemed to give Keith hell, but there were text messages and pictures and talks about Keith’s roommate, which expanded to talks about a whole group of _friends_ , pictures where Keith was smiling and surrounded by at least four people who even went to the length to take him to bowling outings and bake him a cake for his birthday, and it brought tears to her eyes.

She had seen Keith getting into fights during middle school, had seen Keith sad and lonely after his dad died, had witnessed Keith after a spectacularly bad breakup that involved his prom, and an even more spectacular drunk incident that both had decided to never talk about again.

Romelle had seen Keith hitting a lot of lows. Seeing him happy was something new, something she really wanted Keith to have and savor.

Suddenly there were new names and new faces in Keith’s life and even though Romelle might have felt a little jealous that she would not join their group for at least another year, she couldn’t help but notice Keith talking about a certain someone, the name ‘Shiro’ repeatedly coming up in their calls. It was always Shiro this, and Shiro that, and “Romelle did you know he has the kindest smile?”  
  
So when she visited Keith during Christmas break and was faced with the wall of a man that was Takashi Shirogane, beaming the kindest smile in the direction of her best friend, Romelle _knew_.   
  
She took it upon herself to ask Keith one winter day, as they waited for the bus to town, watching Shiro leave in the other direction. “You like him, don’t you?” 

Keith, being like _this_ , cheeks tinted pink and a smile on his face since Shiro had said “Goodnight, Keith,” in that very soft voice that was only reserved for him, made her want to squeeze him very tight to show him just how emotional she was.  
  
Keith answered, his nose red from the cold, and the faint blush on his cheeks getting a tiny bit darker as he blew some hot air out into the cold night. “Yes, yes I do”.  
  
“Make sure he doesn’t hurt you. Or I’ll have to fight him.”

Keith shoved his hands further into his pockets and buried his face deeper into his scarf, mumbling soft curses that were lost in the fabric. But the way his fingers softly pressed against her hand as soon as they parted at their station, was all the nonverbal thank you she needed.

All would be well. 

  
*  
  


Hunk was pretty something was up when Keith showed up one day and asked him to help him with a recipe for mac and cheese.  
  
Most people stumble into your life unexpectedly. Then there was Keith, who had literally been dragged into his life by an angry Pidge.

It had been a quiet day, perfect to test a new muffin recipe. Little did he know that this day would end in a dozen muffins shared between three people and a new friend in his life.  
  
But the second Pidge slammed his door open, dragging Keith in behind her, a firm grip around his wrist, Hunk knew the peaceful day was over.

“Hey, Hunk. This is Keith. He needs to eat. And social contacts so he’ll leave our room more than once a week. I really need my space,” she explained, pulling Keith to one of the kitchen chairs and making him sit down.  
  
“Keith, this is Hunk. Hunk can cook. He’ll show you how to find and use the cafeteria.” Keith only grunted in acknowledgment as he crossed his arms over his chest.  
  
“Go to college, they said. Everybody will be smart and know how to take care of themselves, they said!” Pidge had complained, sprawling herself over the table. From the corner of his eye, Hunk could see Keith squirming in his seat, dark circles under his eyes and his lite frame under the wide jacket he was wearing in desperate need of a muffin. Or five.  
  
Good thing he had just finished baking some.  
  
As crazy as their first meeting had been, having Keith in his life was something Hunk really came to cherish. 

Being thrown into college had everyone in their newly found group unsure and exposed, trying to swim in the stream, suddenly having to take on a lot of new responsibilities. Hunk had spent a lot of time overthinking his actions, his choice of seminars, even the choice of his wardrobe. Next to his indecisiveness, Keith was a beacon, a rock, firmly standing, sure of his actions and always there to reassure Hunk that his decisions were the right ones.  
  
Between Pidge’s scientific approach to basically everything in life (“Who says I can’t out-calculate my Ethics prof? Why do I have to take Ethics anyway?!”) and Lance’s impulsiveness towards ladies (“Why won’t Allura date me? Is it too much to ask for a senior to go get a drink with me?”), Keith was a calm anchor, one that would read the room and pull him into a hug on bad days, one that would come to him for advice on emotions. And, apparently, on Shiro.  
  
When Keith came up to him that day, his hands shoved into his pockets, and his cheeks pink, looking anywhere but at Hunk, he definitely knew something was up.

He had seen the way Keith had looked at Shiro. And he couldn’t resent him for doing so, Shiro was a gem.   
  
Shiro was all open and warm, with a bad joke for every occasion and excellent negotiation skills. No wonder his professors loved him. 

Their group of friends tended to get a bit loud and impulsive sometimes, definitely too much for Keith. Hunk had witnessed Keith draw himself from their conversations more than once, falling silent and letting Lance dominate with his loud gestures. Shiro had always managed to even their fields, to get Keith back into the conversation, to make them consider arguments outside of their comfort zone. 

Hunk might not believe in magic. But seeing Keith and Shiro, sharing silent conversations over looks and subtle touches, made Hunk believe in love at first sight, soulmates and fate instead.   
  
Keith and Shiro would spend hours sitting together in comfortable silence while studying. Sometimes, Hunk thought, when they smiled at each other, it felt like they were forgetting the world and everyone around them. They would agree to each other, be in sickeningly sweet unison most of the times, so much it had Lance roll his eyes one day, commenting, “urgh, you’re so _married_ ,” which made Shiro blush furiously and Keith cross mumble a curse under his breath before Hunk could lift the tension with getting some snacks.

When he saw Keith off that night, with a soft hug and a recipe for perfect mac and cheese, whispering ‘Good luck, buddy’ into his ear, Hunk was sure Keith would be happy. 

There was no way Shiro would miss out on having someone as amazing and caring as Keith as a boyfriend.  
  


*  
  


Allura noticed one day when they were sitting in the cafeteria, all seven of them sharing a rare lunch break, groaning over term papers and football practice. 

She had found her way into the group of friends quite late into the semester when Shiro dragged her to a study session with Pidge and Hunk and she decided to stay when Hunk’s homemade apple pies and strawberry milkshakes were the only thing she would look forward to on days she was buried underneath tons of coursework. Even Lance’s continuous tries to woo her could not keep her from sticking to the group. They _were_ kind of charming.

As it turned out, Engineering classes in college were dominated by male students. That was a lesson Allura had to learn the first day of semester two years ago. Another thing Allura learned quite fast was that most of the male students in her seminars were either intimidated by a tall clever woman in their courses – or took the opportunity to try and hit on her. Which she was definitely not interested in, thank you very much.

Apparently, the intimidation part did also count for other girls in her seminars, so Allura had found herself sitting alone most of the time, having no study buddies or even someone who came dangerously close to being called a friend.  
  
Until one day, Shiro happened.

From the moment Shiro had asked her if the seat next to her was free up until the moment he had dragged her to meet the Holt siblings, Allura was charmed by how warm and friendly Shiro was, putting all prejudices about women in science aside and being interested in her as a person.  
  
(Plus, she assumed, that it had something to do with him being gay, which Allura was not minding at all, it was refreshing to finally being able to talk to a guy who was not having his eyes glued to her chest while talking to her.) 

While Shiro turned out to be a valued friend, the group of friends that came with him were the weirdest bunch. Allura quickly fell for Hunk’s warm hugs and for Pidge’s snarky remarks and even Lance’s lame attempts to woo her were kind of charming, just as much as his loyalty towards his friends.

Keith, on the other hand…  
  
Shiro’s narrations had made Keith out to be a cool loner, a laidback person with a love for motorbikes, dogs and astronomy, and with an amazing sense of humor. 

  
Their first meeting had been anti-climatic, though, when he just nodded at her over his lunch before groaning at something Lance said and asking Shiro about his seminar in two sentences. It had been hard trying to talk to Keith when Lance was all big words and loud gestures, trying desperately to get her attention. So Allura resigned herself to simply watching Keith.

And still, as Allura valued what she had with Shiro, she was keen to be friends with Keith as well. So she tried.

Over the course of a few weeks, a couple of dead-silent study breaks, minutes of awkward staring at each other and forced conversations about the weather, the second Allura mentioned her lovely Persian cat, the ice was broken.

Five minutes later, she found herself exchanging numbers with Keith and flooded with pictures of his puppy and various pictures of his mum’s five cats that were waiting for him at home. 

In between pictures of cats and dogs and fluff, Allura found Keith opening up to her, talking to her about his seminars and. And Shiro. A lot about Shiro. 

To be fair, Allura had noticed that Keith and Shiro were really close.  
  
The way Shiro talked about Keith at every possibility that opened up.  
  
The way Keith was all protective, coming to his defense whenever someone so much as spoke up to Shiro.

The way both let their gazes linger a second too long, too intimate. The way they seemed to be able to talk without words.   
  
It really made Allura wish for a friendship like theirs.

Like today, as they were sitting close again for lunch, sharing hushed conversations and lingering glances, completely lost in their own world while their friends were sitting around them, Pidge explaining something containing a lot of numbers to Lance who was definitely not listening, but typing on his phone.  
  
Allura decided to sit down next to Hunk, drawing Lance’s attention.  
  
“Hey princess, my day’s been blessed just by seeing you.” Urgh, Allura hated the way Lance called her princess. Because she was definitely not some helpless princess sitting in a tower waiting for a prince to free her. She was a strong, independent woman.  
  
Before she could find a witty remark to Lance’s words, Keith barked at him. “Can’t you just give it up already, Lance?”  
  
“You’re just jealous, Keith,” Lance groaned in response, eyes rolling for dramatic effect.  
_  
_ And suddenly, Keith was leaning over, asking Shiro to come along with a soft touch of his hand, and eyes so full of love Allura wondered how it did not come to her sooner.

The way Shiro swayed after Keith, keeping his hands firmly pressed against the small of Keith’s back as they made their way out of the dining hall was the last piece of the puzzle in her head and it all came together.

“Oh.”

  
*  
  
Lance would say he was quite clever, always the first to notice if something was up with his friends.  
  
To be fair, he had disliked Keith the second Hunk and Pidge had brought him along one day. There was no way he had not heard of Keith before; they had been sitting in the same classes and Keith had always been the one to groan if Lance had asked a question before going on to correct him. 

It had been outrageous, never had he been as humiliated and denounced in front of a class. The way that cute redhead he‘d been eying for a few days had laughed after Keith’s retort would never leave his mind. After three weeks of classes, Lance had come to see Keith as his one true rival (One he never dared to admit surpassed in more way than one).  
  
So when Pidge and Hunk showed up at their Monster and Mana evening one day, dragging Keith along with them, Lance had not been amused. The displeasure was reciprocated, at least from the way the corner of Keith’s mouth twitched at each of his jokes, the way he rolled his eyes instead of laughing about his jokes. 

They would definitely clash one time or another, be it over homework, decisions his character in Monsters and Mana made (“I told you it was dumb to turn into a fish, Lance. You should have turned into a bird.”) or where to go for after school activities.

(Lance would still shake his head at that one time Keith had dared to ask “Why is picking up girls so much better than staying home and watching TV, Lance?” Seriously, that guy was so strange.)

In the end, they had agreed to carefully co-exist, with the occasional eye-rolling, or groaning or quarrel involved. 

At least until one day which Lance would always remember as the day his heart had ultimately been shattered into a million pieces by the cute redhead from Physics 101. He was happy he could not remember her exact words or the look on her face as she had torn his handmade love letter into snippets.

What he did remember was Keith. Keith suddenly appearing next to him in the bathroom, standing next to him while he was crying into the sink and handing him a paper towel from the disperser next to the wall he was leaning against.

“Hey, Lance,” Keith broke their silence, his arms crossed over his chest and his eyes fixated on the tiles on the floor. “I know, I haven’t been the best friend or anything. But I know how much this sucks, having your heart broken in front of everyone.”The paper towel was soaked by the time Keith had uncrossed his arms, shoving his hands deep into the pockets of his pants. His eyes were still trying to stare a hole into the floor.

“So… Just. Let it all out, man.” Lance was sure he could see Keith’s shoulders shrugging softly. “If you need to talk to someone, I’m here. And just.. if you need a hug…”

“Thanks, Keith.” He really had been thankful.  
  
And thus started the greatest friendship of Lance’s college years. Lance and Keith. Keith and Lance. Rivals to Bros. Best buds. Through thick and thin.  
  
Sure, it was always Shiro here and Shiro there, when one would ask Keith. But with all their weird wordless conversations, with all their touching and glancing at each other, Lance was sure the both of them would never have what Keith and he shared – the mutual trauma that shaped their friendship was so much deeper than the way Shiro and Keith were just hanging out without talking to one another. 

Or the way Keith would look all weird at Shiro for minutes, as if he had something in his face. Or the way they both would sometimes say the same thing at the same time and awkwardly avert their gazes, acting _so_ married. Or the way Shiro’s hand possessively wrapped around Keith’s hips, pulling Keith closer to his side as they left the cafeteria –  
  
_Wait a sec. That was definitely not a bro thing to do._  
  
And as Lance saw Allura’s eyes widen in surprise while she watched the two of them leave, Lance finally managed to add two and two. 

And gaped. 

And gaped some more.

  
“Dios mio! They have the hots for each other!” He finally blurted out, causing the whole table to erupt in a mutual groan and Allura to shake her head, sighing “Oh Lance.” 

Her tenor sounded awfully close to ‘Oh sweet summer child’. 

  
*  
  


Shiro hoped he was correct, hoped he hadn’t read too much into the signs, hoped he wouldn’t make a fool of himself.  
  
He still remembered their first meeting, remembered the second he had laid eyes on Keith as he had stumbled into the room. Remembered the second his brain had decided to freeze at the sight of the handsome man, all long limbs and shiny black hair. Everything about Keith had charmed him the second they met, but his eyes… his dark purple eyes, deep and mesmerizing, were the most fascinating thing he had ever seen. 

Shiro would catch himself staring into Keith’s face for seconds, eternities, longer than necessary, getting lost in his beauty. He would find himself trying to read every feeling, every subtle change in Keith’s gaze to learn everything there was to the man he would think of when he could not sleep at night – and would see in dreams that left him waking up hot and panting, with a desperate need to change his sheets. 

To say Keith was pretty much his type would be an understatement – Keith was an epiphany, the image of him burnt into Shiro’s mind after just one meeting that had lasted about ten seconds before Keith had managed to pick his jaw from the floor and walked backwards, retreating back into his own room. 

But Keith was so much more than just beautiful legs and mesmerizing eyes, as Shiro would notice in the weeks that followed.  
  
Keith came in layers. Pidge had liked to joke and call him an onion, which had earned her a finger and some curse words mumbled into Keith’s mug, but had Shiro laughing out loud because the image was so fitting.

So Keith came in layers. The outer layer was a feral cat, all defensive, harsh, repellent. Shiro did not know how exactly he had managed to strip that outer layer away – but a combination of bad jokes, understanding glances and long talks about astronomy had turned Keith into one of his best friends over the course of a few weeks. The fact that he was incredibly attractive and had the most beautiful eyes was a nice bonus.

Keith loved dogs and motorcycles and the outside – and Shiro had learned that the fastest way to make those beautiful eyes sparkle was to show up on Keith’s dorm room on a Saturday morning with two cups of coffee in his hand and a helmet under his arm, inviting Keith out for a bike tour.  
  


The thing that hit Shiro the most was how Keith would never judge him. 

Shiro had plans, had ambition, but being the captain of a football team while trying to retain the best grades and working for your professors to get into the best programs, had earned him the title “teacher’s pet” more than once, bringing out the envious and ugly side of a lot of people. So while he liked the boys in his team, he could hear the whispers behind his back. Heck, it had even cost him one relationship and the pain of having to choose between his academic career and a boyfriend that pressured him for a decision was still etched into his heart.   
  
Shiro had found a friend in Matthew Holt who was the only person he knew that surpassed his ambition when it came to their classes – but Matt would be the first to roll his eyes when it came to Shiro’s anger after a lost football game. 

But Keith was there for him. He would come to all of his games, always providing a high-five if they won, or a can of beer if they ever lost.  
  
Keith would also prove to be the best study buddy, had an amazing taste in movies and did laugh at his bad jokes (even though he would deny it afterward).  
  
Keith was perfect.  
  
And Shiro had noticed he was falling head over heels for his best friend faster than he could blink.

Shiro liked to think he was not blind. Shiro noticed how Keith’s eyes and voice were especially soft for him, noticed the way Shiro was the only one allowed to sit close to him, was the only one Keith would not roll his eyes at. Noticed how Keith’s sister had eyed him suspiciously and had asked a lot of personal questions while she had been visiting Keith during winter break. 

If his previous relationships had shown him one thing, it was that Shiro sucked at flurting – so he tried subtle touches instead, getting bolder, longer when Keith did not only pull away.

  
And what started as a hand resting reassuringly on Keith’s shoulder would grow into a hand circling Keith’s shoulder to draw him closer, would grow into a hug.

When Keith turned up on the door of the dorm room Shiro shared with Matt one day, a box of his favourite food in his hands and the most beautiful blush around his nose, Shiro couldn’t have been any more in love with this man.

They had ended up eating the whole casserole and spending their food coma on Shiro’s bed while watching some space documentation, the distance between them nearly nonexistent, getting smaller with every shift of limbs. Shiro would always remember the moment he had been brave enough to let their feet touch under the blanket, his eyes fixed onto the screen in front of him while he forced his face to stay as casual as possible, even though his heart was rushing in his chest.

There was no reason to be nervous, not with Keith shifting even closer over the course of the following minutes, one of his hands ending up on Shiro’s thigh. From the corner of his eyes, Shiro could see Keith’s gaze equally fixed on the screen, so he felt brave, letting his hand circle around Keith’s back, slowly sinking to his waist, where he let his fingers curl around Keith’s hip. It was not more than a subtle tug, but it made Keith slide closer, finally skipping any distance between them.

The second he felt Keith’s head softly resting on his shoulder, Shiro was a goner. He could hear his pulse rushing through his ears, could feel his skin tremble from the closeness, from the realization from what was about to happen.

What _should_ have happened, to be precise.  
  
Because, of course, this had been the second Matt had decided to stomp into the room to complain that they had not left any food for him.

Which caused Keith to jump to his feet, his face dark red and his eyes all glassy, muttering some lame excuse to leave as soon as possible, leaving Shiro and Matt equally confused and Shiro’s bed and arms terribly empty.  
  


Some day, Shiro was sure he would kill Matt.

More importantly, he wanted to talk to Keith about what had just happened, hoping Keith would not hate him for the intimate moment.

But when they met for lunch with their friends the next day and Keith was sitting as close as ever, leaning into his space like always, letting his glances linger even longer than usual, Shiro knew everything was fine. 

Everything was even better when Keith asked him to help him with his homework, having an excuse to leave the loud table of Lance’s wild gestures and Pidge’s chaotic explanations. As they were leaving, Shiro was sure he didn’t imagine how Keith would walk especially close, letting their fingers brush, making Shiro feel brave – so brave he boldly let his hand circle around Keith’s frame, drawing Keith closer with a soft tug on his waist. 

Shiro could swear Keith’s content hum was close to purring.

And so, after a lot of planning, Shiro had found himself next to Keith at their favourite spot to watch the night sky over the city, Keith slightly shuddering into Shiro’s jacket from the cold breeze of looming spring, sitting so close that it was easy for Shiro to sneak his arm around Keith’s waist, gently placing his hand on his hip, like it belonged there.  
  
Bridging the distance between them was nothing new, shouldn’t have thrown him off so much, but the feeling still caused his fingers to tremble and his heart to beat faster. There was no Matt to distract him. He was gonna do this.

And while Shiro still wrangled with himself to simply turn his head and press a soft kiss against Keith’s temple, he felt Keith shift into his side, turning to face him.

Keith’s eyes were beautiful, the way they reflected the starlight above and the soft hues of the city beneath them. They were the last thing Shiro saw before his eyes fluttered closed, and he felt Keith’s lips melting against his.

Shiro had known Keith was beautiful, mesmerizing, perfect.

But their kiss. Their kiss was breathtaking.  
  
*  
  
To his defense, Keith had known from the start,

He had known from the way his guts had turned the second he had laid eyes on Shiro sprawling on Pidge’s chair.

He had known he liked Shiro from the way Pidge had nudged him into the side, teasing him for his lovesick staring.  
  
He had known he liked Shiro a little bit more from the way Romelle had asked him if he liked Shiro one winter night.

He had known he was really bad at flirting from the way Hunk grinned at him smugly, while he explained the recipe for the fifth time.

He had known he must have been really, comically obvious from the way Allura sent him a pic of her cat and a thumbs-up emoji wishing him good luck. And from the way Lance had sent an eggplant emoji three seconds later.

He had known Shiro was in love with him from the way his eyes would never stop chasing him from across the room, from the way Shiro’s arm would easily fit against his waist, like it belonged there, from the way Shiro had been all nervous when he asked him out on a usual bike tour, from the way his palms were sweating when he wrapped him into his jacket as they were watching the night sky.

From the way Shiro’s fingers trembled against his hip, from the way his gaze was filled with love and adoration before his eyes closed and he bent down, finally leaning into the kiss that Keith had been hoping, wishing, longing for, for so long.  
  
Keith had imagined kissing Shiro to be cosmic, but it had been so much better. It had been like coming home.  
  
*

Knowing and _knowing_ were two completely different things, and, as he snuggled closer into Shiro’s embrace, nuzzling into his neck, while the soft morning light bathed his bedroom in faint hues, and he could feel Shiro’s hot breath against his temple, Keith realized, that yes, indeed, he was completely and deeply in love with Takashi Shirogane.  
  
***

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of the [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * Constructive criticism
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> I'll try my best to reply to comments and would love to hear what you think!
> 
> I'm a rambling mess on [Twitter](https://www.twitter.com/dropsofautumn) so follow me if you like ♡


End file.
